Book Reviews Archives - Page 69 of 114

Book Review: Nameless by Jennifer Jenkins

Dec 2, 2016

Nameless by Jennifer Jenkins

Pages: 338
Publish date: October 6th 2015
Publisher: Month9Books
ASIN: B01228EY3G
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US

Four clans have been at war for centuries: the Kodiak, the Raven, the Wolf, and the Ram. Through brutal war tactics, the Ram have dominated the region, inflicting death and destruction on their neighbours.

Seventeen-year-old Zo is a Wolf and a healer who volunteers to infiltrate the Ram as a spy on behalf of the allied clans. She offers herself as a Ram slave, joining the people who are called the Nameless. Hers is a suicide mission—Zo’s despair after losing her parents in a Ram raid has left her seeking both revenge and an end to her own misery.

But after her younger sister follows her into Rams Gate, Zo must find a way to survive her dangerous mission and keep her sister safe. What she doesn’t expect to find is the friendship of a young Ram whose life she saves, the confusing feelings she develops for a Ram soldier, and an underground Nameless insurrection. Zo learns that revenge, loyalty, and love are more complicated than she ever imagined.

Nameless:

I received a copy of Nameless by Jennifer Jenkins from Month9Books for review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I hadn’t heard of this series or the author before I read Nick’s review a couple of months ago. The idea of the world was immediately captivating. And nonetheless, I trust Nick as we both have similar tastes in books.

Nameless follows protagonist Zo a Wolf and Healer who volunteers to infiltrate the Ram as a spy undercover. She has to become a slave and join the people that hate her kind. Her clan has put all their trust in her, and she wants revenge. However, unfortunately things don’t go to plan.

When she is at the Ram gate, Zo’s younger sister appears and now they are both putting their lives on the life. When Zo saves a young Ram’s life, she is marked as a healer. And with her growing feelings for a Ram solider, things are not going the way that she has planned. Not only is Zo loyal she is fierce and strong. I loved the fight that she had.

Zo was an intriguing protagonist. She had this strength about her that I admired. A love for her siblings and even essentially her clan. She has given up her life for revenge and not many people can do that – mind you a seventeen-year-old. When everyone around her hates her and marks her Nameless, Zo finds the strength to pull through.

Nameless has the basic revenge story. However, the world that Jennifer Jenkins has built is quite unique. The reader is on the edge of their seat through the whole story. We don’t know what is going to happen next if anyone is going to find out.

The world building of Nameless was exceptional. The reader is able to find things about the world throughout the story and there isn’t info dump. Which can sometimes happen with fantasy books. Nevertheless, the world was slowly built, and throughout the story layers upon layers were formed.

All the characters in Nameless are excellent. Everyone one is unique and engaging from the get go. I felt myself falling love with everyone. Gryphon was by far, the most enthralling. The reader doesn’t know too much about him at the start. We are not too sure where he stands and what he believes in. And as the story unfolds, so does he. Gryphon becomes close to Zo throughout Nameless and although it starts as this hate relationship, I love that it turns into something more.

I also love Gryphon’s relationship with Joshua. He cares so much for him and Gryphon only wants him to be strong. Joshua was the comic relief and he was needed. He was so beautiful and charming that I could not help but love him. However, Gryphon didn’t baby Joshua and instead taught him to be strong.

The romance was one of my favourite parts of Nameless. It was the beautiful slow-burning kind, which swept me away. Nevertheless, it was forbidden, swoony and left me wanting more.

Overall, Nameless pleasantly surprised me. Nameless explores friendships, family and believing in yourself. It’s about letting a name define you, and not letting your prejudice get in the way. The combination of a fascinating world, captivating characters and a brilliant plot, makes Nameless a must read for fantasy lovers.

Have you read Nameless? Did you like it? Are you planning to read it? Let’s Chat!

Book Review: Something In Between by Melissa De La Cruz

Nov 25, 2016

Something In Between by Melissa De La Cruz

Pages: 432
Publish date: September 2016
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1489211012
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Jasmine de los Santos has always done what’s expected of her. Pretty and popular, she’s studied hard, made her Filipino immigrant parents proud, and is ready to reap the rewards in the form of a full college scholarship.

And then everything shatters. A national scholar award invitation compels her parents to reveal the truth: their visas expired years ago. Her entire family is illegal. That means no scholarships, maybe no college at all, and the very real threat of deportation. But Jasmine won’t give up. Because when the rules you lived by no longer apply, the only thing to do is make up your own.

Something in Between:

I received a review copy of Something in Between my Melissa De La Cruz in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

Before Something in Between, I hadn’t read a Melissa De La Crux novel before, I am not sure why they just never seemed to catch my eye. But, the whole concept of Something in Between did. Something in Between is very important for the YA readership and something that I am interested in, that I love to read about.

Something in Between follows Jasmine de los Santos who is pretty, popular and hella smart. Jasmine has always done what was expected of her. She worked so hard that, she is offered a national scholar award that will allow her to have a full college scholarship. Unfortunately, she finds out that her family isn’t legal in the US anymore and everything shatters.

I have a like/dislike relationship with Jasmine. For most of Something in Between we totally got along. She was an easy character to get along with, and her emotions are punch-worthy at times. When Jasmine hurt, I did too. I felt her angry and disappointment in her family and I would have felt the same. When you have worked tremendously hard and then you get told, it all might be for nothing – it’s heartbreaking.

However, there were times where Jasmine sounded too young for her age or the stereotypical teenager. It was weird actually – sometimes she was acting like a young adult and then she was a teen. It was a strong contrast and was hard to get around. What I also loved about Jasmine was that Melissa De La Cruz moved away from the stereotype of the cheerleader being a bitch and dumb. It was one of the highlights from Something in Between.

I also have a love/hate relationship with Jasmine’s family. There is no doubt that they loved Jasmine. The interactions between the Jasmine and her parents was really nice to see. However, I don’t understand why her parents left them illegal for such a long time. Not even that, they kept on pushing Jasmine to do well, when they knew that she would never be able to go to college if they didn’t become legal. It was absolutely frustrating.

The friendships in Something in Between are a little lopsided. Jasmine had some very good friendships with her cheer group and other students from her school. They stood by her, helped her when she needed them and were just plain nice. Yet, there were times where her friendships were on the line. Nevertheless, it was realistic. Melissa De La Cruz is excellent at representing girls’ friendships and the way that they interaction with one another.

I enjoyed the romance side of Something in Between. There was a slight ‘love at first sight’ element to it, but it started off as a friendship and then grew into something more. Royce was a nice guy, and I couldn’t find many faults about him. However, there was something major hindering me from loving this romance – no communication. At times there was no communication between Jasmine and Royce, they didn’t talk about what was wrong and that lead to them not talking or breaking up. Which was frustrating. I want to see a book where the romances does not cause drama, where there is no breaking up. I did, however, like that the romance didn’t take over the novel.

The plot was one of the main reasons why I enjoyed Something in Between. Illegal Immigrants aren’t talked about much in books, especially YA. It was a great insight into all this in the US. It as interesting to read about and discover.

Overall, I enjoyed Something in Between. It’s a book about family, friendship and love. It’s about finding yourself and standing up for what you believe in. With a beautiful and heartbreaking concept, Something in Between takes you on a journey that is very real and very important.

Have you read Something in Between? Did you like it? Are you going to read it? Have you read anything else by Melissa De La Cruz. Let’s Chat! I have also started to make new graphics, do you like them?

Book Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer – Blog Tour

Nov 21, 2016

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Pages: 464
Publish date: 8th November 2016
Publisher: Pan Australia
ISBN: 1925479471
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

A girl who has a talent for cooking magical confections that can alter a person’s emotions catches the eye of the King of Hearts, who wants her for his bride. She will do anything to avoid this fate, particularly as she finds herself falling in love with the mysterious new court jester…

Heartless:

I received an arc of Heartless by Marissa Meyer from Pan Macmillan Australia in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

When I heard that Marissa Meyer was writing an Alice in Wonderland retelling, I was excited. I had high hopes for Heartless because The Lunar Chronicles are one of my favourite science fiction/retelling series. However, my expectations were not exceeded. At all.

Heartless follows protagonist Catherine, who loves baking and making confectionaries. But, when she catches the eye of the King of Hearts – she wants out. She will do anything, but marry him including falling in love with his court jester. When everything starts to fall on top on Catherine, she must choose between following her heart or doing what is ‘right’.

To say that I am disappointed with Heartless would be an understatement. It took me nearly a month to read through it and that’s very rare for me – I could never get into it. Most of the time I was bored and by the end of the book, I was rushing to finish the book. I didn’t want to DNF it hoping that it would get better, that something will spark in the book for me.

The whole book I didn’t connect with Catherine at all. I found her selfish and even childish at time. Half of the book was her complaining about her life and what she has to do. However, I understand that she wanted to be her own person and wanted to own her bakery. And I commend her on that but, she acted like a three-year-old when she didn’t get her way. Nevertheless, I did like when she stood up for herself.

I did really like the cooking parts of Heartless. I love cooking myself, so being able to see this in a book was fun and exciting. The food was described remarkably well and left me hungry.

After finishing Heartless I am still not sure why she doesn’t like the King of Hearts. Yes, he is a little strange and not very ‘manly,’ but there aren’t reasons why she despises him. From the get go, she has no intention of marrying him, and acts like him is a disease. If Heartless was contemporary, I might not have this problem. However, it’s set up like the 1800’s when people married up, so it was hard to get through.

I also wasn’t a massive fan of the romance in Heartless. It was unquestionably instalove. They see each other once and she already wants to be with him. In saying that I really enjoyed Jest as a character. He was charismatic, magical and knew the right things to say. I enjoyed getting to know him.

One of the things that I loved about the Lunar Chronicles was the friendships – they were exceptional. However, in Heartless that was not the case. Obliviously this a different story, but friendships are so important in books for me. And even though there was somewhat some, it was enough. There was no spark.

I did, however, love the world of Heartless. It was everything that you could imagine an Alice in Wonderland retelling would be. I loved all the hints to the original world. The characters, who they would become, sayings and everything in between. There were parts that put a smile on my face. I loved that it was effortlessly intertwined with one another.

Nevertheless, I felt that Heartless was too long. With over 450 pages, I was bored at times. There were some good scenes here and there, but I felt that everything else was filler. Yet, I really enjoying the last 100 pages or so.

The ending of Heartless was intense. I didn’t know what was going to happen next or who was going to die. Catherine went from being Lady Pinkerton to being the Queen of Hearts.

Overall, I liked Heartless. Although, my expectations were not achieved. Heartless is about love, betrayal and finding out who you are. Heartless is about believing in yourself and becoming who you are destined to be.